The Last Exile was created out of events dating back to 2005. Roll back the clock and there was a distinct climate of cynicism (aimed largely at politicians) and fear. Add to this, confusion and anxiety about the rapid changes taking place within society and you had a lot of unhappy people.
Historically, whenever you have a fearful population, there’s usually a scapegoat: those who are different, those, perhaps, who are exiles from their own land, the immigrant, and at the time the UK was seeing a huge influx of people. This was something that really interested me and was to form the backdrop to the story. And then, of course, there was Jean Charles de Menezes, the tragic victim of the Stockwell tube station shooting in July of that same year…
Like most people, I followed the details of the case and found myself focusing on the firearms officers involved. They came in for a lot of criticism at the time, and I began to wonder what it must be like to do the job, to go into a situation where you may have to kill, or be killed.
Deciding to follow this up, I was extremely fortunate to be allowed into the UK headquarters where firearms officers train. Taking part in a simulated training exercise with real time full-scale film footage and a specially adapted Glock17 wired to a computer, it became painfully clear how confusing and terrifying it must be to go into a real life situation. Added to this, there’s the genuine difficulty of countering the physical changes that take place in a human body when it’s exposed to sudden high levels of stress. I discovered that hearing, taste, and touch disappears as all your senses are focused on finding and disarming the target. This is why firearms officers are trained to such a high degree, their aim to over-ride that stress, bring a situation to a peaceful conclusion wherever possible, and be absolutely accurate in every detail and observation so that his or her account will withstand the most vigorous debrief and possible cross-questioning in court.
Stuffed full of ideas and still shaky with adrenalin, I was driving away from the unit afterwards when I realised that something magical had happened: this was the terrific moment when Paul Tallis, the main protagonist in The Last Exile, was really born.
The Last Exile is publshed by Mira
